Tastykake Empire In Danger Of Crumbling

Tastykake, manufacturers of numerous kinds of prepackaged snack foods, could be forced to sell or merge after a newly opened factory failed to generate the hoped-for savings. Krimpets, Kandy Kakes, Koffee Kakes, and Kreamies could all be put on the chopping block. And I don’t know if you’re aware, but those kinds of snacks do better in your tummy than on a chopping block.

Are you a Tastykake fan worried about what this might mean for the future of your plastic-wrapped treats? Then why haven’t you been buying more? Flagellate yourself in the comments.

They’re really mostly a Philly phenomenon- I’ve never seen them too much outside the city. I suspect most people outside of South-Eastern PA won’t be bothered by this too much, but for us Philly natives it’s a huge tragedy.

Never had a Tastykake, but Little Debbies have waxy coatings and a strange flavor. They coat your tongue and make you feel gross after you eat them. That said, in my younger years when faced with a Little Debbie Snack Cake, I usually gave in to it. They were inexplicably compelling.

We’re transplants from the Philly area. We get packages from family once in a while, and they’re always smart enough to put some Tastykakes in for us as the packaging material. Trust me, we’ll eat it with a spoon if the need be.

I used to visit the grandparents in Lancaster PA and the most exciting part of the trip was stuffing my face with butterscotch krimpets. If you’ve never had a butterscotch krimpet dunked in ice cold milk, you haven’t really lived at all.

We had a Philly cheese steak place open (and then close) in the Houston Area they had tastykakes and birch beer. I would go to get butterscotch krimpets and a birch beer. Now I have to get family members to send them on occasion.

Yup, everywhere except where we live. When we lived in NC, it wasn’t available. We moved to Georgia, and they became available in NC. They were building the Florida plant when we moved to Miss. Now, they are available in Georgia. Mississippi is a beer wasteland, and there is no hope of them ever coming here.

Even though it’s my significant other who is from Philly, we go nuts on Yuengling and Tastykakes when we’re back east. You can find some Tastykakes in the Philly cheesesteak places around but not the tasty beer. So, boooo! Save the Kake!

I always save room for a few cases of Yuengling & Tastykakes when I drive home to visit. Pretty much every brown bag lunch my mom packed in grade school was the buttercream filled chocolate cupcakes and a Lebanon bologna sandwich. The Yuengling wasn’t until high school. Dad always had a case of the 16oz returnable bottles on hand. He & his friend would split one after golf. Sometimes I’d sneak one.

I became addicted to TK when I visited Philly for the first time in my life. It really was a pleasant surprise. Since you say you are in L.A. — some of the Jersey Mike’s sandwich shops stock them. You can buy them there if the store has (wisely) utilized their ordering system. You can always ask a manager to start stocking them. They are delicious (and the sandwiches are not bad either).

I grew up eating Tastykakes. I particularly love their chocolate cupcake thingies – they are the only ones I’ve ever found without that nasty marshmallow stuff in the middle! I used to be able to buy them at one grocery store here in Texas but they quit carrying them years ago. I wish I could find them again …

If I still lived around Philadelphia (and I’m very thankful that I do not) I would buy this up all of the time. They have had the same high quality (especially in their pies) in the 30 years I’ve been eating them, and if they sell out to someone who lowers that quality, I’ll be really sad. Butterscotch Krimpets and Tastykake lemon pies are fabulous fabulous things.

I love them things. It’s sad what they try to pass off as a cheesesteak around here (Missouri).

We had a place here for a while that made REAL Philly cheesesteaks; he even got the meat from Philly. It closed or moved or something. I was soooo pissed off. I had them when I lived in Delaware for a short time and got hooked.

The frozen Steak-Umms are close. I can still get those and make me one at home, but it’s just not exactly the same.

I’m old enough to remember when they came wrapped in a heavy waxed paper instead of plastic. I could eat Chocolate Juniors until I die; which probably wouldn’t take too long, what with the whole eating nothing but small rectangular layer cakes thing.

Once in a blue moon, I have seen Tastycake products in the Richmond VA area, but not so much laterly. I grabbed a couple boxes of cupcakes and a pack of Taylor’s pork roll before I left South Jersey on my vacation last year.

(I also remember when a Ring Ding was the diameter of a CD, and the current dwarf hockey pucks were called Ring Ding Juniors, but we’ll save that for the Drake’s story…)

Oh God no. I grew up in Philadelphia. Anytime I come home for a visit, my first stop is Wawa. I get a turkey hoagie and a Tastykake. I would be heartbroken if they had to change. Though…if it would mean expanding to more locations…

I have Tastykakes shipped to me by friends who are still on the East Coast. The shelf life is only a few weeks because the ingredients are so fresh. For comparison’s sake, check out the shelf life on Twinkies and Ho Hos.

The only reason I don’t buy them more is they aren’t readily available where I live. When I do find them, they’re three times as expensive as they are in PA.

The chocolate eclairs are my favorite. But I usually end up with Peanut Butter Kandy Kakes and Butterscotch Krimpets. I love them all.

It’s been a while since I bought a box of any of the cakes. The pies however I get whenever my local store has them for $1 (a few years ago they were only $0.50, now the stamped price is $1.50). I am not too surprised at this, back a few years ago they had maybe 10 flavors of cakes total, 2 or 3 of each style (Krimpet, Cupkake, Kandykake, etc). Now there are many more flavors of each style (so more cost in printing & packaging) and all on the same store shelf space (competing with themselves). Also I have noticed a definite decline in quality of the cakes, with a price increase. The last few times I did get them they weren’t as good, but they still are more tasty than the national brands, just not the same as they were only a few years ago. I wonder if them moving to a new facility may have something to do with some of the quality and taste issues and due to that they are now having financial issues.

Crap, this cannot be. The only reason I visit my family members in Philadelphia is so I can have some Tastykake fruit pies and Jelly Krimpets! They sold a few of there products here in Chicago for about a month several years back. I was in heaven.

As someone from the Philly area, I hope they are able to pull through, but I still don’t understand why they opened a whole new factory if they were having money issues.
Also, the prices seemed to have skyrocketed greatly…I only buy them when they are on sale (or if I am in the area of this dollar store that sells close-dated pies 5 for $1).

I have loved Butterscotch Krimpets for over 30 years. Please do not leave me! boohoohoohoo….*sobs*

I had no idea TastyKake was doing badly. With the crap ppl eat in this country + the overweight rate I thought TKake would be doing great. (Their stuff tastes far better than overly preserved snacky cakes like Hostess for instance).

If they were available in Houston I’d buy them. I grew up close to Philly, which seems to be the only geographic area where they’re known. Have they ever considered ADVERTISING and going national? Kroger carried them briefly in Houston years ago but were dropped (because no one knew *what* they were, and how good they are compared to the other crap)

Tastykake just doesn’t sell it’s full line of Geek food (empty calories) far enough from home. Food Lion in North Carolina only carries Krimpets and chocolate cupkakes. Last time I went to Maryland, where you can get the whole line, I bought a case of blueberry and french apple pies. Sell them down here dangit! I’ll help save you! French Apple Pie and a Cheerwine? Nom nom nom. Diabetic coma, coming up!

My sister in law has just started to see them sold in wal marts near nashville. The best way for them to increase profits is to expand on the east coast through stores like wal mart and target. They already are sold in wawa and sheetz.

I’m not sure how…Tastykakes are made fresh, and only have a shelf life of around 3 weeks…compared to Little Debbies or whatever, which could sit on the shelves for months before they need to be taken off.